I was a young child when Indira Gandhi declared Emergency. My father was the Vice Chancellor of the India’s most troubled university in Madhya Pradesh, the Jabalpuri University. The veteran JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav who was popular student leader was an extremely popular and violent leader in those times. Though Jabalpur University had seen some celebrated Ex CJs and Ex Chief Secretaries as their Vice Chancellors. But due to Jaipraksah Narain’s student movement led by Yadav during emergency, it had become impossible for any VC to last for more than 6-9 months.
My father was a professor and an intellectual in his own rights. Bright lights like Radhakrishnan and Indira Gandhi use to seek his advice on crucial academic matters occasionally. He was a students’ professor and gradually Sharad Yadav also became his most trusted and obedient pupil. In that period of political turbulence my father finished his term very peacefully and successfully. On a winter afternoon, I was playing cricket with our Maali (gardener) while my father was giving an interview when I overheard something that stayed with me. The journalist asked him the secret of this success and he replied that the secret is that ‘I don’t waste my time with intellectuals’.
Couple of days ago, I was invited by NDTV for a political debate,
hosted by Barkha Dutt. While making my point a term slipped from my mouth which went viral? I received many messages, tweets and emails. These were neither from friends
nor relatives. These emotional
compliments were from the unheard, invisible people. That term was ‘Intellectual Mafia.
The Nehruvian thought
Nehru a Fabian sociologist and an anti-business, romantic thinker was fascinated by English speaking, good looking, and western-mannered, Fabian intelligentsia. A Brahmin, it was his own ‘class & intellectual arrogance’ that he single-handedly destroyed indigenous intelligentsia like Rajendra Prasad, Radhakrishnan, Rajagopalachari, Kamraj, Patel etc. Nehru was India’s Jinnah and Jinnah was an accidental Muslim.
Nehru despised typically Indian sensibilities–Indian thinking, Indian leadership and Indian way of looking at the world. He was a pathetic economist. He could never understand ‘capitalism’. He could not understand technology. He could not understand the real aspirations of Indians. He could not understand Gandhi’s economics. To cover up his failure Nehru took a high moral ground and was convinced only he could decide what was best for the Indian masses. He chose socialism over capitalism, spiritual elitism over religion.
The intellectual mafia has redefined morality. Secularism included. Anti-congress was new immoral. And pro Hindu became anti-Muslim. ..box
The Red Rose in his upper pocket was a reminder to people that he was God-like. Gods never lose. But he had lost a part of India to Pakistan. He had goofed up on Kashmir. His self-esteem was broken. He had to heal. He had to rise, so he self-appointed himself as India’s Chief Intellectual Officer.
Nehru believed in political liberty but he was against economic freedom. Gandhi, on the other hand knew that political liberty could be achieved only with a strong backbone of economic liberty. Which is why, he had social reformers and political thinkers on one side and Birlas and Bajajs on the other. Socialism is a utopia. Panchsheel was a utopia. USSR was a utopia which crumbled. Luckily Nehru did not live to see Socialism – baby of his intellectual flirting – die.
To cover up his illicit romances, rising corruption, undercurrent of a revolt and massive defeat and humiliation by Chinese, he nurtured an ‘intelligentsia’ which justified his impractical economics and failed politics to the masses. The coterie of intellectuals he created was immoral. Historians know that whenever a King surrounds himself with immoral thinkers, debauchery begins. These short-sighted and opportunistic intellectuals justified ‘socialism’-Socialism that has corruption in its very DNA now.
Nehru chose Big State over Big Market. More state sponsored programmes meant inefficient system, red-tapism, favouritism, weaker economy and corruption. It meant bigger disparity between masses and policy makers. More subsidies, freebies meant more arrogance of rulers for they were the ones distributing alms. They became the givers. And us, the obliged masses, the takers. Isn’t it a sad commentary on free India’s development that the collective ambition of this country’s youth has been only to become an engineer or a doctor? There is no healthy competition. No excellence. No innovation.
That, India has sadly reduced to becoming State vs Masses, Corrupt vs Masses, Intellectuals vs Masses, and Givers vs Takers.
Since Givers were guilty of their corruption they always looked at the Takers with suspicion. This suspicion turned into fear when Indira Gandhi was thrown out by Indian David – Raj Narain, a maverick socialist leader who should have been on her side. But he was with the masses.
Emergency was declared. Sanjay Gandhi took over. He created an army of morally corrupt, foreign educated intellectuals with no track record. Their biggest strength was their unconditional loyalty to Gandhi family. This tradition has continued then on. Precedence is given to Loyalty over merit, scheming over competence, loot over contribution. And Corruption has spread like Congress grass.
Guilt grew. Fear grew. With every scam,Ghandhi family started making the intellectual wall bigger and bigger. Today, this wall is full of scamsters, crooks, agents, brokers, pimps, lobbyists, character assassins, land sharks etc. in the guise of lawyers, journalists, NGOs, feminists, advisors, professors, socialists etc. Simply put beneficiaries of Congress’s largesse.
Their strategy was/is simple- Moral domination. Nehru was a thinker. But Rajiv, Sonia and Rahul are no intellectuals. They have took a different route altogether. They have redefined morality. Secularism included.
Anti-congress is immoral. Pro Hindu became anti-Muslim. And India was morally polarized.
Morality is subjective. No one can say with guarantee what pure morality is. Masses were forced to choose between moral standards (Secularism, unity in diversity, Inclusiveness etc.) and quality of life (development). People who wanted quality of life were made to feel guilty. Hindus who wanted to celebrate their religious freedom were made to feel guilty. Muslims who wanted to be part of mainstream India were made to feel guilty. They filled India’s psyche with fear and hate. They hated all indigenous, grass-root thinkers. They hated Sardar Patel, Lalbahadur Shashtri, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Chandrashekhar, PV Narsimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and now Narendra Modi. They are the hijackers of national morality. Secularism included. They are the robbers of Indian treasury. They are the brokers of power. They are the pimps of secularism. They are the Intellectual Mafia.
They are the land grabbers of Sainik farms and Adarsh Societies of India. They run NGOs. They run media. They coin useless and irrelevant jargon to confuse masses. They have designations but no real jobs. They are irrelevant NRIs who want us to see reality which doesn’t exist. They want plebiscite in Kashmir. They want Maoists to participate in mainstream politics. They want Tejpal to be freed. They want Modi to be hanged.
But something has changed despite their unity, might and moral acumen. There is a reverse revolution taking place. The innocent masses, who have suffered intellectual injustice are raising their voices. Modi is just their face. So do not make the mistake of thinking that its Modi vs others.
It’s not Modi. It’s us,the masses. I hope there won’t be new walls. And I hope there won’t be another mafia again.
Never again!
-Vivek Agnihotri (Writers blog :http://vivekagnihotri.wordpress.com/2014/05/06/intellectual-mafia/)
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